There’s no shortage of author surrogates in horror fiction. From Stephen King’s numerous fictional writers to the self-insert protagonists of H.P. Lovecraft, this has always been an extremely popular trope, but I don’t think it’s a particularly bad one. Most authors are at their best when writing about what they know, so why not tell stories about storytellers? When used well, these characters can even be more than just a point of view, with their interaction with fiction becoming the heart of the narrative. One of my favorite examples of this is Remedy’s Alan Wake, a game that I consider to be a shining example of the power of interactive storytelling, and one hell of a love-letter to the horror genre.